Pinafores

What is a pinafore?
A pinafore is a sleeveless dress that works as an apron, it is slightly looser than a dress, so you can wear a blouse or top under it. Personally, I like to wear them in the colder months, with some jeggings and a light weight polo neck jumper underneath, and as the weather gets warmer you can wear a more light weight top underneath, or indeed nothing.
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinafore
The name reflects that the pinafore was formerly pinned (pin) to the front (afore) of a dress. The pinafore had no buttons and was simply "pinned on the front", which led to the term "pinafore".^[2]

Pinafores became popular in the 1960's with the Mods making them fashionable. Pinafores are versatile,  comfy and display fun and youthfulness.

Here are some examples of 1960's pinafores

Fun and funky 60's pinafore dresses

original 1960's pinafore dress pattern

What I love about pinafores is the fact they are versatile, and you can create many different looks with this one garment depending how you style it.
Pinafores come in and out of fashion, unless you are a true vintage 60's fan, then you possibly wear them regularly to soul nights, or scooter rallies. They are on the high street again, and I have made a few, I plan to make more in different styles. The current ones I made are checked, which was quite common in the 1960's too. Most of the fabrics I used are vintage and contain wool. 

Available at Pandoras Box Newbury and Button Boatique

Dress types of the 1960s

Scooter Dress

The scooter dress, by definition is a micro mini, often made in two parts with a dropped waist, usually pleats and definitely micro mini so you could get on a scooter!

Mod scooter dress -  notice the slight kick flare to it

Sheath Dress

The sheath dress started around the 50s, figure hugging, usually with long sleeves, tight, and straight. they went on into the 60s, but during the 60s the shift dress would develop, becoming less fitted

sheath dress 1960s

Shift Dress

A shift dress is a simple unstructured dress of varying lengths, created during the 50s and 60s.

The 60s shift dress has an A line cut

Shirt Dress

The clue is in the name, it buttons down the front, with a looser fit, often with a belt to define the waist line

1960s Shirt Dress

Smock Dress

Introduced in the late 1960s, usually with long bellowing sleeves, gathered at the wrists, otherwise known as a chemise.

Smock Dress or chemise

Tell me what your favourite is? 
What did you wear then? 
What would you wear now?

Please check out my collection at Button Boatique

Foxy Lady talks... Jerkins

No, I'm not talking about the recent dance rage, or was that twerkin?, I'm talking a cool garment from the 1960s / 1970s, that seems to be forgotten about...tabard to you.
I recently bought the most awesome fabric ever (to me) bold, bright, colourful (psychedelic to be frank) and yet classy from the Ebay. When I received my 'treasure' through the post, and measured it against a dress pattern I was going to use. Alas, it was just slightly to small, so I rummaged through my vintage pattern collection, and found something that might suit the bill, similar to a dress but more of a tabard.
I was excited to find this design, and chose to run it as an experiment, if it looked good, then I would make more.

1969 Simplicity Jerkin and flares sewing pattern

As I was collating the pattern pieces I required, I noticed the garment was referred to as a 'jerkin', me and my child ego found this amusing. Oh what fun I could have with that, that evening I started to do some research into 'Jerkins', and I was toing and froing messengers with my mum about it, having lots of giggles in between. Mum was a 60s chick, and I will often ask her things about the fashion and culture of this era (she made her own clothes too),  but she had never heard of a Jerkin, and not many people have.
For many years Jerkins were made from leather, used as protection, they were first recorded in the 16th century. They were used during many wars, and the 'battle jerkin' was created for the 1st world war, by the 1950s and 60s they were worn by workman in lighter fabrics to protect their clothing as opposed to themselves, so when did they reach women? The tunic shape became fashionable in the 1960s, short tunics (jerkins) were worn over slightly longer dresses or trousers, as seen on the Simplicity pattern.

So whether you call it a tabard, or a tunic or a jerkin (teehee), its a versatile garment that can create many different looks which appeals to my sense of resourcefulness.
I made this Jerkin (as it was termed back then) or tabard if you like, from this awesome vintage '70s fabric (tricel). I was so excited when I found it, its my favourite fabric ever! Unfortunately, there wasn't quite enough for a dress, so I decided to make the Jerkin instead. I hope you agree it looks amazing, a real 'statement' piece.


    Buy Kiki from Button Boatique

Kiki - Jerkin made from 1970s Tricel

This is the reverse side of Kiki

Nana - Reversible Mod Jerkin
See more at Button Boatique

Marianne - Gingham Mod style jerkin

                                                            Available at Button Boatique



References:

The Encyclopedia of Fashion - Georgina O'Hara

Historical Jerkins - wiki

The 'Mini Skirt Revolution'

The mini skirt revolution

Skirts can be one of the most sexy items of clothing, particularly if they are well tailored not too revealing, but with a nice snug fit and a bit of calf showing, worn with heels they can make the female shape no matter what size, look and feel elegant. Let's make the skirt 'Foxy' again!!

My latest range of skirts are made from vintage fabrics and reclaimed lining, I even managed to source reclaimed vintage zips for them too. I molded the fabric to my tailors dummy to create the skirts,  covering the sizes 10, 12, 14 and 16. This was always my preferred method of pattern cutting, as opposed to using commercial flat patterns, yes it is more time consuming, but I like working directly with the cloth and find you can get better shapes and be more fluid with your design

Throughout the late sixties and early 70's hem lines were up and down like yoyos. If we look back further to the 1950's and think of Dior or rockabilly dresses, hemlines were getting shorter but the knees were still covered. It wasn't until 1961 that the 'hem line' first went above the knee, during the swinging 60's years (1960 -67), it went up and up until in 1967 it reached the upper thigh. It was however done with fun, and style, this short length would be worn with bright colorful tights or funky boots.

1960s micro mini

 Many people think, that Mary Quant invented the mini skirt, when it was actually Parisian designer Andre Courreges, he introduced it onto the catwalk with his 'Space Age' collection in 1964, but Mary Quant flew the flag in London as 'Mother' of the mini skirt, and she made it appealing and more affordable to the new 'youth culture'. Mary herself, states that neither she nor Courreges invented it, but the girl on the street. It was interesting times as the feminist movement got annoyed with being dictated to by the couture houses when they decided they had done with mini skirts and moved onto their next designs, so the young women who were now growing in our universities and in the workplace decided to take it into their own hands and start a mini skirt revolution. I had never heard of it until now. In the 70's this continued with the punks, and people like Debbie Harry wearing miniskirts again as an anti-fashion protest. If you want to read more about this please click on the link,

The mini skirt revolution - link

By the late 60's the hemline dropped again to mid calf (midi) and then full length maxi in 1969. since the 60's the hemline has never played such a big part in the industry as people have more choice.

I hope you have enjoyed my blog as much as I have researching my facts, please make comments on it.

Some Foxy Lady Creations short skirts made from reclaimed fabrics, some true vintage.

References:
The Encyclopedia of Fashion - Georgina O'Hara (a must for any fashion student)
https://theminiskirtrevolution.wordpress.com/history-2/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniskirt